Tennessee HOA Water Conservation

Section 1: Overview — How water conservation interacts with HOA authority in Tennessee

Tennessee has no statute that limits an HOA's authority over water-efficient landscaping, and none that compels an association to permit drought-tolerant plantings, xeriscape, artificial turf, rainwater harvesting, or graywater reuse.¹ For a Tennessee community, water-related landscaping rules come from the recorded declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) and the association's architectural-control provisions, with the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008 supplying the framework for condominiums created on or after January 1, 2009, the predecessor Horizontal Property Act for older condominiums, and the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act supplying corporate formalities for associations organized as nonprofits.^5,9 Any practical restriction on outdoor water use is far more likely to originate with a local water utility than with state law.⁶

Tennessee's water-resource law, including the riparian reasonable-use doctrine and the oversight exercised by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, governs who may withdraw water and in what quantity; it is unrelated to whether an association may regulate a homeowner's landscaping.⁷ Within the national picture, Tennessee sits with the silent, CC&R-governed states of the Southeast and Ohio Valley, in contrast to drought-exposed jurisdictions such as California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, and Florida that have enacted statutes limiting HOA control over water-efficient landscaping.¹⁰ The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, what that framework actually requires of Tennessee associations, and the recent legislative and judicial record.

Section 2: The statutory and regulatory framework

2A. Statutory limits on HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping

A review of the Tennessee Code returns no provision restricting HOA authority over drought-tolerant or xeriscape landscaping, native or low-water plantings, artificial turf, or water-efficient irrigation. The chapter where such a provision would appear, Title 66, Chapter 27, contains the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008 (Tenn. Code § 66-27-201 et seq.) and the predecessor Horizontal Property Act (Tenn. Code § 66-27-101 et seq.), neither of which addresses landscaping, drought, or water conservation.^1,5 The chapter's later parts, added over time, address dedicatory instruments and recording (Part 6), a narrow set of homeowners'-association provisions including a vested right to continue long-term rentals (Part 7), and gated subdivisions (Part 8); none touches water-efficient landscaping.^11,12 Planned communities have no comprehensive Tennessee statute at all, so no statutory landscaping provision reaches them.⁹

The absence is meaningful because several states have enacted exactly the kind of provision Tennessee lacks. Florida bars associations from prohibiting Florida-friendly landscaping (Fla. Stat. § 373.185), Texas prevents associations from prohibiting drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving turf (Tex. Prop. Code § 202.007), and California makes governing-document terms void and unenforceable where they prohibit "the use of low water-using plants as a group or as a replacement of existing turf" or "the use of artificial turf or any other synthetic surface that resembles grass" (Cal. Civ. Code § 4735(a)).¹⁰ Tennessee has adopted no analog to any of these. A property manager searching for a Tennessee "water-friendly landscaping" statute will not find one, and any assertion that Tennessee protects xeriscape or drought-tolerant landscaping against HOA rules is not supported by the Tennessee Code.¹

2B. Related water law, drought response, rainwater and graywater

Tennessee follows the riparian doctrine for surface water, under which landowners adjacent to a watercourse share a right to reasonable use, and it administers water-resource oversight through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Water Quality Control Act (Title 69, Chapter 3); withdrawals of 10,000 gallons or more per day must be registered under Tenn. Code § 69-7-301.⁷ This body of law governs water allocation and quality. It has no bearing on an association's authority over a homeowner's landscaping and is included here only as background.⁷

Tennessee manages drought through the Department of Environment and Conservation's Division of Water Resources, which monitors conditions, publishes drought updates, and issues voluntary conservation guidance rather than mandatory statewide rules.⁴ No state drought declaration reaches private landscaping enforcement or suspends an association's authority to enforce its covenants.⁴ On rainwater and graywater, the search returns no statute addressing either as against HOAs. Rainwater harvesting is lawful and encouraged as "green infrastructure" following 2016 legislation (Pub. Ch. 792), and subsurface graywater irrigation is permitted under the Tennessee Plumbing Code, but neither regime limits HOA authority.^2,3

2C. Where water-conservation rules actually live in Tennessee

For a Tennessee community, the recorded declaration (CC&Rs) and the association's architectural-control provisions are the primary and often the only source of any water-related landscaping rule.¹ For condominiums, the applicable condominium act supplies the general framework: the Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008 for condominiums created on or after January 1, 2009, and the Horizontal Property Act for those created earlier, with the modern act requiring the declaration to state any restrictions on use (Tenn. Code § 66-27-305).^1,5 For planned communities, there is no comprehensive statute, so the framework is the CC&Rs plus the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act (Tenn. Code § 48-51-101 et seq.) for corporate formalities.⁹

Local water utilities are the practical source of any owner-facing water-use rule. Metro Water Services in Nashville, which draws its supply from the Cumberland River, has issued voluntary conservation requests and staggered-irrigation schedules during dry periods.⁶ Memphis Light, Gas and Water maintains a drought management plan and operates one of the largest artesian well systems in the world, drawing from the Memphis Sand Aquifer through 10 pumping stations and more than 175 wells that deliver roughly 150 million gallons per day.¹³ The Knoxville Utilities Board, established in 1939, draws from the Tennessee River, treats it at the Mark B. Whitaker Water Treatment Plant, and serves more than 400,000 customers in Knoxville and parts of seven surrounding counties.¹⁴ These utility measures operate independently of the HOA framework. The operational takeaway is that a manager looking for "Tennessee HOA water conservation law" will find the governing rulebook in the recorded declaration and in the local water utility's rules, not in any HOA-specific water statute.^1,6

Section 3: What the framework requires of HOAs

A. Landscaping approval and architectural review

An association's power to approve or reject a homeowner's landscaping change comes from the recorded declaration, not from any water-conservation statute; where the CC&Rs condition improvements on architectural-committee approval, Tennessee courts enforce that requirement as written, a matter of contract rather than statute.¹⁵ For condominiums created on or after January 1, 2009, the declaration must state any restrictions on use, occupancy, and alienation under Tenn. Code § 66-27-305 — a statutory requirement that frames but does not itself impose landscaping rules.¹ No statutory provision requires an association to approve drought-tolerant or water-efficient landscaping; that, too, is left to the declaration.¹

B. Drought response and watering restrictions

No Tennessee statute limits HOA enforcement against dormant or unwatered lawns during drought; the Department of Environment and Conservation issues only voluntary conservation guidance, nothing mandatory.⁴ Where a local utility imposes outdoor-watering limits, those limits bind the homeowner as a utility rule that applies independently of the association.⁶ An association retains its covenant-enforcement authority during drought unless its own governing documents provide otherwise.¹

C. Rule adoption and disclosure

For planned communities, an association's rulemaking and disclosure obligations flow from its CC&Rs and from the Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act, which governs corporate procedure for the nonprofits under which most associations are organized.⁹ Dedicatory instruments, including restrictive covenants and amendments, must be recorded to be enforceable under Tenn. Code § 66-27-601 et seq.¹¹ For condominiums, the declaration and bylaws supply the disclosure and amendment framework under the applicable condominium act — a framework that applies to both pre- and post-January 1, 2009 condominiums for events occurring after that date.⁵

D. Enforcement limits and conflicts

The principal water-related conflict a Tennessee association can face is a contract-versus-local-rule tension: a CC&R requiring a green, irrigated lawn set against a local water utility's watering restriction. Because Tennessee has no water-conservation statute mediating this, the tension is resolved under general contract and covenant law, not under any water statute.^1,6 Tennessee courts construe restrictive covenants strictly and resolve ambiguities in favor of the free use of property.¹⁶ Statutory enforcement limits that do exist are unrelated to water: condominium fines require notice, an opportunity to be heard, and reasonableness under Tenn. Code § 66-27-402(11), and a separate statute protects political signage under Tenn. Code § 2-7-143 — neither concerns landscaping.¹⁷

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills

No bill in the past 24 months, spanning the second session of the 113th General Assembly and the 114th General Assembly (2025-2026), was identified that would create or affect HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping, drought enforcement, rainwater harvesting, or graywater reuse.⁸

For context, the frequently cited "Tennessee Homeowners Association Act" (SB405 / HB610) is not pending. It was a 109th General Assembly bill introduced in 2015 and deferred to summer study on March 15, 2016, where it died; it was never enacted, and secondary sources describing it as "under review" in 2026 are outdated.⁸

B. Recent appellate rulings

No Tennessee appellate opinion in the past 36 months (July 2023 through July 2026) was identified that squarely concerns HOA authority over water-conservation or water-efficient landscaping.¹⁶ The controlling recent authority on how a Tennessee court would analyze a landscaping covenant is the covenant-construction doctrine restated by the Tennessee Supreme Court.

C. Active legislative debates

No active proposal that would change Tennessee's treatment of HOA water-conservation landscaping was identified.⁸ Trial-level association disputes proceed through the Tennessee Circuit and Chancery Courts, with the Chancery Courts handling many association matters; appeals go to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, with discretionary review by the Tennessee Supreme Court.¹⁸

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

On water conservation specifically, states cluster differently than they do on general governing statutes. The first group has statutes that limit HOA authority over water-efficient landscaping, concentrated in drought-exposed jurisdictions such as California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida, and Utah; a second group has partial or emerging provisions; and a third, silent group leaves the question to CC&Rs and local utilities, a group that includes most Southeastern and Ohio Valley states and Tennessee.¹⁰ The practical implication for a multi-state operator is direct: a firm accustomed to Florida's Florida-friendly-landscaping rule or Texas's drought-landscaping statute should not assume any equivalent applies in Tennessee, where the declaration controls.¹⁰ Tennessee shows no legislative momentum toward such a statute; no bill on the subject was identified in the current record.⁸

HOA Weekly's Tennessee Water Conservation coverage updates quarterly as the legislature and courts act. For Tennessee communities the practically controlling water rules are the recorded declaration and the local water utility. Federal frameworks apply to Tennessee associations regardless of state law — the Fair Housing Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act among them.

1. Tennessee Condominium Act of 2008, Tenn. Code § 66-27-201 et seq. (Acts 2008, ch. 766); contains no landscaping or water-conservation provision. Cross-verify at Tenn. Code § 66-27-305 (contents of declaration). ↩
2. Green infrastructure / rainwater harvesting, HB1850 / SB2417, enacted as Pub. Ch. 792 (2016), amending Tenn. Code § 7-35-401. ↩
3. EPA REUSExplorer, Summary of Tennessee's Water Reuse Guideline for Onsite Collected Waters (graywater subsurface landscaping irrigation under the Tennessee Plumbing Code; permits under Tenn. Code § 69-3-108). ↩
4. Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Water Resources, Drought Updates (voluntary conservation guidance; no statewide mandatory rules). ↩
5. Tennessee Horizontal Property Act, Tenn. Code § 66-27-101 et seq. (pre-January 1, 2009 condominiums); applicability under § 66-27-202. ↩
6. Metro Water Services (Nashville), voluntary conservation and staggered-irrigation notices; utility rule, not a statute. ↩
7. TDEC Division of Water Resources (Water Quality Control Act, Title 69, ch. 3; water-withdrawal registration under Tenn. Code § 69-7-301); riparian reasonable-use doctrine, background only. ↩
8. SB0405 / HB0610, "Tennessee Homeowners Association Act," 109th General Assembly (2015); deferred to summer study March 15, 2016, and never enacted. No 2024-2026 bill addressing HOA water-conservation landscaping was identified on capitol.tn.gov. ↩
9. Tennessee Nonprofit Corporation Act, Tenn. Code § 48-51-101 et seq.; no comprehensive planned-community statute exists in Tennessee. ↩
10. Out-of-state comparators: Fla. Stat. § 373.185; Tex. Prop. Code § 202.007; Cal. Civ. Code § 4735(a) (void/unenforceable covenant terms on low-water plants and artificial turf). Presented for contrast; not Tennessee law. ↩
11. Dedicatory Instruments, Tenn. Code § 66-27-601 et seq. (added by 2017 Tenn. Acts, ch. 331); recording of restrictive covenants. ↩
12. Homeowners' Association, Tenn. Code § 66-27-701 et seq., including § 66-27-703 vested right to lease (added by 2021 Tenn. Acts, ch. 151). ↩
13. Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, Drought Management Plan (Sept. 2022); Memphis Sand Aquifer well system; utility rule, not a statute. ↩
14. Knoxville Utilities Board, Water Service (Tennessee River supply, Mark B. Whitaker Water Treatment Plant; serves 400,000+ customers); utility rule, not a statute. ↩
15. Royalton Woods Homeowners Ass'n v. Soholt, Tenn. Ct. App. (architectural-review approval enforced under CC&Rs); Williams v. Fox, 219 S.W.3d 319, 324 (Tenn. 2007) (strict construction of covenants). ↩
16. Pandharipande v. FSD Corp., 679 S.W.3d 610 (Tenn. 2023) (Campbell, J.): restrictive covenants are "in derogation of the right of free use and enjoyment of property," are "strictly construed," and are not extended "to any activity not clearly and expressly prohibited by [their] plain terms." ↩
17. Political signs, Tenn. Code § 2-7-143; condominium fines require notice, hearing, and reasonableness, Tenn. Code § 66-27-402(11); neither concerns landscaping. ↩
18. Tennessee court structure: Circuit and Chancery Courts (trial level); Tennessee Court of Appeals; Tennessee Supreme Court. ↩